Conventional golf putters are of known construction and use. A typical putter includes an elongated, rigid, tubular shaft having a rubber or leather grip extending downward from the upper or "butt" end of the club shaft over the upper portion thereof and having a putter head disposed at the lower or "tip" end of the club shaft. The putter head may be attached directly to the shaft or, alternatively, connected thereto by a hosel. The club shaft generally has a continuous or segmented taper from the upper end of the shaft through the lower end, with the upper end having an outer diameter thickness of no more than about 0.65 inches and the tip end having an outer diameter no greater than about 0.37 inches. In use, golfers usually putt from a crouched position by grasping the putter grip and stroking the golf ball through a firm movement of the arms across the body.
These conventional putters define the standard by which all putters must conform in order to be useful for tournament play. In particular, all putter designs used in professional or amateur tournaments must conform to the Rules of Golf published by the United States Golf Association (which acts in conjunction with other international governing bodies), and these rules require that any acceptable putter must be composed of a shaft, a grip and a club head. These parts must be fixed so that the club is one unit, and the design must not be substantially different from "traditional and customary form and make."
Such conventional shaft constructions are expensive to manufacture and require special fabrication equipment and techniques. While putters incorporating such constructions form the industry standard, there have been a surprisingly broad range of attempts to improve upon this basic design. Others have attempted to improve the performance characteristics of the putter by using new materials and manufacture techniques for the shaft itself, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,162 directed to a carbon-graphite or fiberglass shaft, by providing special hand grips such as shown in U.S. Pat. No, 4,067,573, or even by changing the length and use of the putter itself. The latter approach is the so-called "pendulum style" long putter which is longer than a conventional putter and allows the golfer to putt from an upright, allegedly more stable position. Such long putters are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,438 and patents cited therein. Another known device, called the 20/20 putter manufactured by Probe, has an inverted tapered shaft with the tip end outer diameter of about 0.60 inches and a butt end outer diameter of about 0.35 inches.
The goal of these devices is to promote control and accuracy during the putting stroke and to provide a more comfortable and efficient putting technique by the user. While some of these prior art devices and approaches have merit and have had some general acceptance, they do not substantially improve upon the conventional putter design. Most require costly and complicated manufacturing techniques and/or special materials.
Therefore, it is the primary object of this invention to provide a new and improved golf club shaft construction as well as a golf club incorporating such shaft construction which exhibits improved performance, namely greater stability and improved hand/eye coordination, as compared to prior conventional golf clubs.